


Left Out (When I Want To Be Inside)

by hegemony



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-28
Updated: 2011-10-28
Packaged: 2017-10-25 01:01:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/269957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hegemony/pseuds/hegemony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's raining, and Pepper might have a crisis of confidence going on in her head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Left Out (When I Want To Be Inside)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Porn Battle 7 on January 29, 2009. Presumably in the same universe as (The Constant Road) Across The Wilderness, after Rhodey and Tony come back from Afghanistan.
> 
> Significantly expanded.

It's raining, as it tends to do in Seattle.

She's looking out the window, a cup of tea barely hanging on in her hand. He touches her, a graze of his fingers against her hip and she can feel his heat through the fabric of her jeans. It's Thursday, a cold and grey Thursday, and there are too many scenarios running through her head. Every single one of them feels wrong.

Her blood feels like it runs cold with guilt, and she misses LA for a split second: that Malibu breeze and salty air that she had to give up for this temporary reprieve. She feels Rhodey's arms, body-warm as they wrap around her middle like tentacles. She relaxes into him, leans back against the solidity of his body and goes almost breathless when it strikes her again that she's here, with him.

When it strikes her that her boss, his best friend, their co-worker knows about this, now.

"What are you thinking about, up there?" He asks.

"Nothing good," she sighs."basics, really. Air, food, water, you..."

"Tony," he jokes.

"I just can't really focus on relaxing knowing I'm the reason why you guys might not be..."

"He's bricking me over a contract, Pepper. The fact that we're dating has little to do with that, unless you're the corporate lawyer who keeps sneaking intellectual property clauses in his proposals. That you?"

"No," she smiles wistfully, "I was an accountant before I had this job, remember?"

"Yes, Virginia," he says. One of his hands lift, smoothing her hair behind her ear so he can push his lips against her skin. She melts into the touch. "So you have nothing, absolutely nothing to feel guilty about. I don't care how many times you look at each other or dance together, I don't care, I care a little bit if you stick your tongue in his mouth, but seeing as we've already crossed that bridge..."

"You love reminding me of that night," she sighs. She remembers the night of the gala, the cold edge of nerves and yet as she'd told him of what had gone down between her and Tony, all he'd' done was smile and said "better you than me, Pepper."

He presses a hand to her face, turns her head to angle her into a kiss. His hands already feel like vines, climbing and caressing but he kisses like he wants to do something supremely callous like marry her before they leave to return to LA.

"You mean I kidnapped you from Tony for you to just sit around and grumble about how someone else is doing your job slightly poorer in your absence? Oh no, that won't do at all," he says, unwinding from around her, pressing a kiss against her cheek and slipping away. His voice becomes hazy-low, a hint of menace somewhere within the dulcet tone. She trembles. "Come to bed, Pepper."

She makes him wait, watching the city slowly drown and indulging in the desire pooling in her stomach. The rain is hard enough that the hotel room window is covered in water, and if she focuses she can watch the raindrops fall one after another. They're all like her, they just want to get where they're going, in neat order, in perfect time.

She's wet. She knows she wants him, that her body's ready for him and she licks her lip at the thought. She wants to suffocate under him, she wants to evolve, to change on every level with him. She knows Jim will do that for her: he's done it before. She knows he'll take care. So, they skip the pleasantries. There's no undressing, other than his hands at her jeans and her hands at the hem of his shirt. There's barely enough time for a condom before he sinks in and bottoms out. They don't kiss; there's no talk. Weather like this means all the time for foreplay later.

He keens, his toes curling as he hangs his head, dangles his lips over hers just beyond her reach. It's payback, she thinks. She needs it to be payback, desperately and she wants nothing more than for it to work like penance, punishment for her transgressions against him. He moves with a jagged rhythm and smooth stroke: enough to lull her into a sense of security and then seek all her spots at once, pulling her to the edge. She writhes in his arms, grasping at the sheets so she has something to anchor herself with, and her mouth falls open as he presses his fingers to massage her clit.

"Rhodey," she whimpers, a plea for harder, faster, more.

"Love it when you say my name that way," he laughs, headdy and soft as he pulls her into another position, her hair spilling over the two of them. She lands on his lap, the denim of his jeans scritch-scratching against the backs of her thighs and calves. He takes a second to let her adjust, holding her up, tracing the dip of her collarbone with his fingers, and then with his lips. "Say it again, Pepper. Say it again."

He presses his fingers into her thigh, arches her up and thrusts into her while pushing up and through. Her nails seek his hair, the back of his neck, folding in softly before groaning. It's blissful, the agony of how he makes her feel when she's this way. "Please, Rhodey. Make me come."

"Jesus," he gasps, holds onto her and keeps thrusting until he comes, everything clenching, his face in her neck, his whole body shaking with the strain. She shirks out of her tank top, and pushes his jeans all the way down, their chafe finally too annoying.

After, he pushes her back to the bed, places her thighs to fit around him, and presses his mouth to right where she needs it. It's thundering outside as her body submits to a violent orgasm, bucking up into his mouth, grabbing so tight she doesn't even know if she could ever let go.

Later that night, he takes her out to dinner and they walk leisurely in the theatre after the play he steals her away to see. The night air feels damp under her coat, but Jim is a fantastic gentleman, holding doors and crossing puddles like a story book prince for her. He even jokes about it, self-effacing bars of showtunes with Grace Kelly shuffles. She itches with simultaneous embarrassment and pride as he swings her around and wraps her up in his arms when they get back to the hotel, warmth and company abound.

He unzips her dress with deft movements that are equally gracious and careful, and as it pools at her feet the sky outside breaks open and it starts to rain again. He undresses himself and leans her forward against the window.

"You feel alright to keep those heels on for a while?" he asks.

He smiles as one of his hands curls against the arch of her back while the other traces the line of her calf. She nods, shakily, and spreads her legs a little. He closes them for her again, and holds her close. "No, Virginia, not yet."

They stay like that longer than either of them would like to admit, the casual intimacy of it all a fantastic distraction from her tasks back home.

And then, he takes her, against the window, her feet curling inside her heels, the messiness of it all a revelation, a damn near comfort. She likes it, more than she wants to spend time admitting, and she finally holds him close in bed that night, sprawled all over him as they sleep.

Good thing she has nowhere to be for the next few days.


End file.
